- The Xperia 10 VIII will launch for €600/£550, a significant price hike compared to the €450/£400 launch price of the Xperia 10 VII.
- Sony appears to have already discontinued the Xperia 10 VII, so it cannot be recommended as a better deal.
- The biggest problem is that Sony has barely upgraded the phone this year beyond max screen brightness and speaker quality; charging remains very slow, battery life is merely adequate, and the camera system was already struggling to stay competitive last year.
- At €600/£550, the Xperia 10 VIII isn't merely expensive for what it offers; it competes with phones that are faster, have better displays, substantially better cameras, larger batteries, dramatically faster charging, and in some cases better long-term software support.
- Had the Xperia 10 VIII launched around €350, it could be an interesting niche alternative, but at €600 it is practically impossible to recommend; it is not a bad phone, just an almost unchanged phone from last year entering a market that hasn't stood still while asking substantially more money.
- The Xperia 10 VIII is a difficult phone to judge because, taken on its own, it isn't necessarily a bad device; it is rather unique, combining a relatively compact body with an uninterrupted display, front-facing stereo speakers, a 3.5mm jack, expandable storage, a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader, and a very clean Android experience.
- There are still things genuinely liked: the phone is light and pleasantly narrow, has excellent ingress protection, its 120Hz OLED is sharp and now sufficiently bright outdoors, the front-facing stereo speakers work very well for multimedia, and Sony's clean software remains refreshingly free of clutter.
The Sony Xperia 10 VIII has launched at a steep price of €600, a significant increase from the €450 of the Xperia 10 VII, which has been discontinued. The new model retains the same 8GB RAM and 128GB expandable storage as its predecessor, making it hard to recommend.
While the Xperia 10 VIII is not a bad phone, it features minimal upgrades, primarily in max screen brightness and speaker quality. Critics note that charging remains slow, battery life is only adequate, and the camera system struggles to keep pace with competitors. “The biggest problem is that Sony has barely upgraded the phone this year,” one review states.
The phone's compact design, uninterrupted display, front-facing stereo speakers, and a 3.5mm jack are increasingly rare features, but at this price point, it faces stiff competition from devices with superior specifications. “At €600, though, it's practically impossible to recommend it,” a reviewer concluded. Had it launched around €350, it might have been a compelling niche option.
In summary, the Xperia 10 VIII enters a market that has evolved significantly, yet offers little to justify its higher price tag.
“The Xperia 10 VIII retains a 3.5mm jack, expandable storage, and a 120Hz OLED, but charging remains slow and battery life is merely adequate. At €600, it competes with faster, better-camera rivals, making it practically impossible to recommend.”
